Jack and the Robot Girl
by Kaleiyah-P
Summary: Jack meets XJ9, a robot girl thrown into a future she does not approve of. Together with the samurai, she discovers how to become a better robot, and vows to defeat Aku at any cost. In progress, rating changed from K to T for violence and suggestive themes.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

1

The clack of sandals dissolved the moment he stepped into the bar. Peering from under his straw hat, he walked to the bar's counter top. But before he could place his order, the octopod bartender stared back at him as he cleaned a cup in his tentacles and a dishcloth.

"Hot water, please."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"…All right, then." The cashier slithered off to the back with his green tentacles barely making a sound.

The music grew louder. The conversations grew intense. "I'm tellin' you, man. Ain't no way the Jets are gonna beat the Rockets. …and don't tell anybody I said this, but… Haha! You've got one in you now, mate! …Raise you twenty."

The scene was casual. Familiar to the Japanese man. He'd been to several bars before. All of which had aliens and robots of different sizes. The level of diversity in the future, he hoped, would be as promising once he set things right.

The cashier placed his water on the table.

"Thank you."

"No prob."

Jeers and wolf whistles filled the room. A rhythmic, metallic clanking got closer. The robot was a female. All her angles and curves where in the right places. Her voice was tinny, but that was expected. It was still low enough to make you think about her once you saw her blue paint job, skirt, and leather black boots as she sat next to the samurai. She didn't lift her eyes once.

Jack sipped his water. The warmth slid down the rocks in his throat that made it hard to speak. There was little conversation to be had with strangers, and he certainly didn't want trouble.

"Hmm… Don't think I've seen you here before," said the bartender.

"I get that a lot," she replied.

"What'll it be, miss?"

"High octane. The real stuff."

"Ah, somebody likes danger." The bartender turned a diesel valve in the floor and sprayed the oil in the cup. He placed it on the counter. "I don't usually get many orders for that. Some robots say it messes up their gears."

"Not for me. I can tolerate it pretty well now." The robot girl tasted the drink, wiping some off with the back of her metal hand. She moved slowly as not to scrape too loudly. "Thanks."

"No prob. Mind tellin' me where you're from?"

"Another time."

Jack listened without moving an inch.

"A peaceful time. A time when Aku wouldn't always get his way."

The bartender laughed. "You must be a pretty old robot, then, 'cause Aku's been around for as long as I can remember. No offense, though. Whoever fixed up your parts made you look gorgeous."

The robot girl didn't smile. "I'd rather you not say that. My looks have gotten me into a lot of trouble in the past, and I don't want any."

"Well, if you don't want any trouble, don't make trouble. Elsewise, I'll have to kick you out." The bartender walked to the other part of the counter.

The robot girl took another gulp. Jack continued to sip his water, listening to all of the sounds around him. The sound of uneven clanking footsteps stopped behind him and the robot girl. The samurai clenched his sword yet again, ready to strike, but was surprised to find that this would not be his adversary.

"Hey there, pretty," the robot said.

The robot girl put down her drink.

"Mind if I loosen some of those screws under your skirt?" said the hunk of junk staring at the robot girl.

Jack sat quietly, inhaling deeply at the insult towards the her.

"Back off, if you know what's good for you, scrap heap," she replied.

"Oh, don't worry, sweetheart. I know what's good for me, and it's your lovely nuts and bolts."

The robot girl turned around. Her right hand clinged and clanged into a laser gun. "I said _backoff_."

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait a minute, doll! Let's not get too hasty!"

_Shoo!_ The unwanted male robot was blasted with a blue plasma ball back to the pool table where he came from. Green fabric and pools balls flew everywhere, knocking poker players out of their bluffs and ruining their games.

The music stopped. Tension filled the air.

A five-foot yellow gecko stood on its hind legs. "Hey! Who do you think you are, doll? Nobody messes with Vinny!"

"'Sides, what's a pretty robot like you doin' with a weapon like that?" beeped another robot.

"I am _so sick and tired_ of all you dogs coming after me like I'm some sort of a bone you can chew up and spit out. If you want me, though, by all means — come and get me." With more fastening gears and pops, her left arm became her second laser shooter. "I guarantee you won't make it past me."

"Wait a minute…" muttered one of the robots. "I know that girl! I've seen her on one of those wanted posters! She's got a bounty of nine million!"

The murmurs spread around the bar like an uncontrollable fire. Every alien, reptile, and robot humanoid got their gun or something sharp. The situation was about to get rough.

Remembering the bartender's request for no scuffles, Jack turned to the girl. "Madam, I wouldn't do that if I — "

"Well, whatever you are, doll, nobody messes with my pal Vinny. And if you want a fight, you're about to get one. C'mon, boys!"

With the speed of a cheetah, the robot girl flew into action, blazing the place like a hailstorm. A volley of laser shots here, a round of kicks to the side. All with the strength of a million and seventy men and the reflexes of 1000 watts an hour.

The bartender rushed over to the scene. "Hey! What's goin'—!"

_Zap!_ _Bam! Crrk! _A laser blast nearly singe the bartender's lips. Everyone wanted a piece of the newcomer robot girl now. There was no holding back. Yet he continued to stop them with a twist of her arm, varied weaponry, or brute strength.

Jack could barely sit still as the violence continued in his wake. "I think it's best if you hide under the counter for awhile," he said to the bartender.

The octopod did as he was told. The samurai placed his cup of water down and drew a hand to his sword.

The fighting raged on for ten more minutes. The girl wasn't tired at all. The lizards were, but the other robots weren't thanks to their artificial humanoid chips. Yet the more the robot girl fought, the more Jack could see in her eyes that she was as tired as she said. Her moves became harried; she left more cuts that oozed instead of bruises that bled on the inside. She was beginning to long for their ends as much as she wanted the fighting the stop — as much as she wanted the flirting and pain to stop.

All the patrons except Jack were steaming or groaning the floor. A few tried to crawl away from the metal storm this robot girl was, yet they did not succeed. She found them and issued more blasts from her laser to their backs. She also found Vinny, trembling before her. She took the collar of his greasy black leather jacket and drew him up the wall.

"All right, all right! Look, I'm sorry! Okay? I didn't mean it! The boys just put me up to it, that's all!" he chuckled.

The robot girl's hand transformed once more. This time, it became a chain saw. "Sorry's not good enough."

"Ah, no! Come on, please! Have mercy!"

"Have mercy? _Have mercy? _What do you take me for, huh? An idiot? That's what you and your pals took me for! That's what Aku and Vexus take me for! Aku can put all the bounties on me he wants! I'll take on whoever wants me!"

At the name of Aku, Jack stood from his seat. The real reason for her rage had been revealed.

"Look, doll! I said I was sorry! I really didn't mean it!"

"Then stop calling me _DOLL!_" The robot girl thrust the chain saw into Vinny's inner engine. His screams were shrill, growing spasmodic from the electricity that randomly escaped. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it!"

Critically wounded, Vinny slumped to the ground along with his friends.

Stepping back, oil covering her chainsaw hand, she quieted down. Then she yelled to the rest of the now empty bar. "_WHO ELSE WANTS TO SCREW WITH ME? I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY IT!_"

The samurai stepped forward with no hand holding his sword.

The robot girl faced him and raised her chainsaw. "You next?"

"There is no need for your weapon. I do not intend to fight you."

"Then _what do you want with me_?"

"To talk."

The octopus bartender lifted his eyes over the counter, careful not to be seen.

"I'm listening," said the girl.

Jack, still uneasy at the sight of a massive chainsaw as the arm of a pretty robot girl, cleared his throat. "Once, in an establishment much like this one, I was pursued by those who wished to capture me for profit, and acted unknowingly as Aku's way of breaking my spirit. The amount of enemies I faced were relentless, and at that point, even my sandal breaking felt like a blow to me."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"I, too, yelled back just as you did to see if anyone else wished to challenge me. But without warning, Aku took my anger and used it against me, forming a demonic entity that matched me in skill. Yet once I realized that this demon's source of power was my own relentless hatred, I opened my heart and restored the purity that was buried there."

"You still didn't answer me. Why are you telling me all of this — to teach me something?"

"You wish to defeat Aku, do you not? That is why he has set a price on you for others to receive once they capture you. Am I right?"

The girl lowered her chainsaw. "Yes, but… How would you know?"

"Aku has also sent others to capture me, for I wish to pursue him as well. I am surprised that I have not encountered anyone of the sort that wishes to capture me here, but at the same time, I cannot be relaxed. Yet I have learned from past experience that anger and passion, left uncontrolled, leads me no step closer to defeating him. I advise you to think the same."

"Who are you?"

"They call me Jack. May I ask who you are as well?"

The robot girl's hand de-figured and popped back into a hand. She stared at it for a long time before answering the stranger.

"Jenny. Jenny Wakeman. …Or at least, that who I _think _I am."

Jack narrowed his eyes. A tinge of sadness in her voice made him curious.

Another groan from the corner. The robot girl grew uneasy. "Do you…mind if I talk to you outside, Jack? I think we might be able to…help each other."

"I do not mind at all."

The pair of them walked out front. The bartender reached behind him with one of his tentacles and pulled out his cell phone, punching a few numbers.

"Yeah, can I speak to the police? …Yeah, tell Aku I found Samurai Jack and XJ9. They're walkin' out of my bar as we speak. Caused me damages in property, and I want a party of the bounty to pay for it. …Thanks." He hung up.

_Told her not to make a mess_, he thought. _Oh, well. At least the samurai and her are getting along. I had a feeling they would._

_I mean, why else do strangers sit next to each other?_


	2. Chapter 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. Let me start off by saying that I apologize for not writing more of this fanfiction sooner. I began writing it while I was in the midst of planning out the rest of my senior year in high school, and now that I'm in college, it's getting harder and harder for me to concentrate on writing anything like this in my spare time. I was also afraid of messing up the whole fanfiction entirely. In other words, I needed a little time to plan out what I was going to do, and so far, I think I've found an ending.

Secondly, I'd like to thank you. I had no idea the first chapter of anything I wrote on this site would be read by anybody and get good reviews (as well as suggestions that I might use in the story). This isn't the first time I've ever written fanfiction, but I would say that this is the first time I actually decided to be serious about fanfiction and give it a shot.

In other words, you — the people — have spoken. And I will try do to my best give you a story that's worthy of both of our standards. However, I ask that all of you who may have just started to read the story or have been with me almost a year ago, to please be patient. I will do my best to write as much as I can in the future, despite the process feeling like it's about the speed of watching a snail cross a side walk.

Again, thank you, and I hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

2

"What was it that you wanted to talk about?" asked the samurai.

The street was still filthy as usual — broken cars and trash lying around, the buildings in disrepair. The sky crimsoned, yet the hue wasn't saturated enough for one to call it a sunset. It was still very much pinkish and had a lot of white to muddle around its colors. It is how Jenny would look to Jack if she were a normal human embarrassed at the fact that she was so caught up in her own thoughts that she forgot where she was and what she was doing: walking with a fellow "wanted criminal" out of a bar after beating up a few bots and bullies.

"Wha-? Oh, right, that… Sorry. Just in my own thoughts sometimes."

"I am as well," said Jack.

"Anyway, I know I said that I think we might be able to be able to help each other, but I kind of wanted to talk to you about…you first. I mean, you could've stepped out of the bar and not even talked to me. But you stayed and started telling me about how Aku almost destroyed you. Why?"

"…Because you remind me of myself."

The robot girl turned up the auditory sensors inside her ears. "But how could I remind you of yourself? I'm a robot."

"Your soul is very pure, and your heart is just as strong. You do not need to be a human to have such qualities," said Jack.

_Tell that to my mother_, Jenny thought, her eyes drifting across the horizon to keep herself from what she believed were the emotions that plagued her.

Jack's eyes looked into the robot girl's. He slipped his arms into the sleeves of his white robe to brace a slight gust of wind. "Aku, however, does not have the capacity for such things. I learned that early on."

"How early on?"

With a deep breath, he found solace in the sunset that was beginning to appear and began to tell his tale.

"My father was once the Emperor of Japan. With the help of the gods, my father was able to forge and use the sword that I now wield to seal Aku in the earth the day I was born. Years later, when I was but a boy, Aku had returned and set my kingdom ablaze. Our archers and warriors were of little help; Aku set their weapons straight back. My father tried to protect us with the sword, yet it was of no use. It was my mother who was left with the duty of ensuring that I was properly trained to become the warrior that would defeat him.

"I traveled the world, learning every art of fighting known to man, before I finally earned the right to wield my father's sword. The day I returned to fight Aku, I nearly won. Yet before I could deliver the final blow that would have ended everything, I… I waited too late, and he sent me here. Ever since, I've looked for a portal to take me back to my own era so that I may stop what should have never started."

"Which means you're the reason why the assassin business is pretty boomin' these days, eh, Jack?" said a sly gentleman, leaning against a building across the street. A long, cream-orange tail decorated by a single black bracelet weaved out from behind his legs as he stepped toward them. Two furry ears popped out of the top of his black hat. One of his paws was out in the open, the other inside his black pants pocket.

Jack gripped his sword hilt. Jenny focused on her new target.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, you two. Old Tom's just low on money is all…" The bipedal catman threw out his hand, a black egg trailing off his hand to greet them.

Scanning it, Jenny stepped back. "We have to go."

"Why?

"Because whatever it is, it's not a grenade!" As the building they were in front of exploded in rocks and waves of electricity, Jenny pulled Jack away and down to the ground with her. Yet whatever distance they had did nothing. A black mechanical mass slithered toward Jenny's leg and yanked her off of the samurai.

Where the building once was, a long black serpent popping in every gear and crackling with electric pulses constricted Jenny. No matter how hard she fought and how many weapons she could turn her hands and legs into, it sent a pulse to disorient her.

After rolling out of the way of the flying debris, Jack stood up to meet his new adversary, only glancing occasionally at Jenny wrestling her new, serpentine foe.

"One down, one to go," said Tom smiling. He slipped on two black gloves, stiff with metal and circuitry. Once he turned them on and let the steel claws lengthen appropriately, he leaped over to Jack.

The samurai's new battle had begun.

Tom and Jack were even in speed, yet this did not prevent Jack from making stronger blows with his sword. In quick flashes, the cat would make predictable volleys for Jack's head or arms, but never wish to venture behind his back and take him from behind. Once Jack saw the ruse in his style, he swerved around the cat and cut the claws on his robotic hand with ease and landed his sandaled foot in the cat's jaw, sending him pummeling into the asphalt.

As Jenny saw Jack rush over to the large creature that ensnared Jenny, her scanners found a weakness in the snake's design.

"Jack, get his tai—!" _Zzzt!_ The final pulse of the metallic serpent sent her into sleep mode. Its electricity was much too strong for Jack to climb on; he would be dead the moment he touched it.

Nonetheless, he tried to do what he thought she advised: cut off the snake's tail.

Without a second more, Jack ran toward the snake with his sword out stretched. Once the metal made contact several times, however, the sword could not penetrate the snake's tough steel skin. It dived for Jack, yet the samurai quickly rolled out of the way.

Tom pounced on the samurai, his jaw red with an incoming bruise and his hands on top of Jack's sword, pushing toward his neck.

Tom smirked. "Don't bother lookin' over there, Mr. Samurai. I paid a lot for that son of a gun who's got your robot friend. She's gonna be taken really good care of, you dig?"

Glancing at the serpent, Jack saw it twist ever so-tightly around his "robot friend". Her metal joints would pop in a matter of minutes, rendering her easy to bring to Old Tom in a scrap heap if Jack did not do something.

As Tom's tail swiveled viciously over his eyes, the light catching off its dark black bracelet, Jack finally knew what Jenny meant.

The samurai momentarily released his strength to bring up his legs and kick the cat out above him. And just as quickly, Jack pulled the bracelet off Tom's tail, stood up, and crushed it in his hand.

The snake quickly began to retract in shape, shedding its metal skin.

"No!" Tom yelled. "My snake!"

Without a control, the snake crumbled into nothingness, leaving Jenny a motionless mess as well.

The samurai leveled his sword at the bipedal catman. "Leave before I have the chance to pursue you."

Tail between his legs, Tom ran, cursing himself for letting the snake go so easily.

Jack sheathed his sword, then rushed over to his fallen "robot friend".

He looked at her, trying to find a switch that would turn her back on. He found it, pressed it, and waited.

Slowly the robot girl came back to life, several sensors beeping and whirling inside her body.

Jack smiled. "I was beginning to worry that the electricity was too great for you."

"I've dealt with worse," Jenny croaked. She sat back up, joints creaking and popping back into place. "Thanks, Jack. I owe you one."

"As do I for telling me the solution. My apologies for taking so long to find it."

"It's good. Do you know of any place we could get some oil? My joints feel a bit stiff after being crushed…"

"I'm afraid I don't. Perhaps we could find something around here?"

"I'd rather not stay, not if anybody like that Tom Cat'll come back and get us. Why don't we find a place to crash?"

"That sounds like a good plan." Jack sighed, lending a hand for Jenny to stand up. "I just wish the hunting would stop."

"Me too." She took it and stood up with crackling joints.

"I wish Aku weren't such a coward and met me face to face," Jack muttered, helping along the limping robot to a nearby repair shop.

-.-.-.-

"Oh, don't worry, young samurai," said the master of darkness, looking through his portal. "I got your message loud and clear."


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

3

The samurai waited for the robot to be inspected and repaired, reflecting on all his previous pursuers. Of all, he had not encountered a creature whose technology fit him so seamlessly that the solution was hard to spot. He'd have to be careful next time.

Briefly, his eyes caught the robot girl paying for her tune-up with a polite smile to the mechanic, then headed out the door.

"The doctor said I'd have to be careful next time," she told the samurai. "Otherwise, it's going to cost me more."

"I would say the same, but I am not…like you."

Her eyelids lowered in thought. "It's okay. You can say it. You can say I'm a robot."

"That's not what I originally wanted to say, but…if you insist, yes. I am not a robot, like you are."

"Jack, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Jenny sighed, clasping an arm with her hand. Yet she continued walking, and Jack easily followed suit. "Where to begin… It's been awhile since I…woke up in that pod, so to speak. It's like I have amnesia or something, like I got a bump on the head, but it's not like I amnesia. In amnesia you lose your memory. But I didn't. I have all these memories that I can call at will, but something's preventing me from accessing some of them.

"Have you ever felt that way?"

The samurai pondered the question with all his strength, yet no answer came to him. There was no instance of him feeling aware of his own soul, but doubting if it existed. But there were instances that she described.

"I have lost my memory, and I have fought a sprit with my sword, but… As for your specific instance, no. I've not felt that way."

"I hope you don't have to. It complicates things, but… this is what I know about me so far, if you'd like to hear it."

The samurai nodded.

"If you got the hint earlier at the bar with all my weapons and speed, I'm a robot that was built so I could defend the world from aliens, intergalactic criminals, and that kind of stuff. I also lived in Tremorton, which…" Rubbing her elbow, she chuckled. "Which was probably the biggest magnet for trouble in the universe, now that I think about it."

Again, the sadness in her voice at what she missed in her life was not covered by her laugh. Jack heard it, yet kept quiet.

"Anyway, after Cluster Prime was out of Queen Vexus's evil hands and put into Vega's good ones, the amount of creatures coming to Tremorton started going down, and everything was generally more peaceful than it had ever been. And it went on like that for about four years.

"As expected, all my friends were changing — getting older, while I stayed the same. That's when my mom brought me aside and sat me down and told me, 'You're going to have a new sister.'

"The enemies were only going to get tougher, she said, and she had been working on XJ-10 to replace me. She was going to tell me eventually, but she said knew both of us would take it hard, because I was the best robot she'd ever made so far. I don't remember exactly how I felt; I blank out on that memory. But I can guess it was a mix of things I was feeling.

"The next memory after that, a report from Vega comes in. She says the entire galaxy was under attack, and that it wouldn't be before long that Cluster Prime would be under her mother's control with the help of Aku, who I'll never forget. Apparently, Vexus and Smytus had given Aku information on how to build better robots for his army in exchange for repossession of Cluster Prime, the destruction of Tremorton, and the end of me. All of us — Mom, Sheldon, Brad, Tuck, Skyway Patrol, and me — we did the best we could. But Aku would just suck the weapons we gave him and shoot them right back at us. It was no use.

"That's when my mom told me that it wasn't safe for me to be on Earth anymore, and that I needed to get into her space pod. She said something about not wanting me and my powers in the hands of Aku or Vexus, and wanted to be sure that I was safe if things went wrong. And then once the space pod closed, I was out like a light and brought here.

"I had to start from scratch, and Aku's to blame for all of it. And that's why I'm looking for him. But things haven't been going as smoothly as I thought they'd be, because… Well, as you've already seen, he's got his eyes out on me. And it looks like he has his eyes out on you, too."

"Which is why you believe we can help each other," Jack said.

"Yup. That's the plan so far. But I'm afraid it won't be easy. I need to find a mechanic that's good with reconstructing data links — er, I mean… bring back some of my memories."

"Then we shall start there first."

"By the way, Jack…"

"Yes?"

"I know I didn't catch all of the battle, but…" Blue lights lit up her face. "You're really good with that sword."

The samurai blinked, looking at the moon to distract himself from his own reddening cheeks. "Thank you. You are…quite strong yourself. I only hope that I do not hinder you once we start learning from each other."

"I doubt it. I'm pretty quick when it comes to those kinds of things, and you seem the same way."

"We…shall see."


	4. Chapter 4

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. Thank you for all your views, reviews, and thoughts.

As of right now, I don't know if I'll be having anymore characters come in from the shows to portray. They will most certainly be mentioned and given nods, but as for now, I wish to create the atmosphere of two lonely souls on a journey learning how to live, especially Jenny, who is still very much maturing.

This is a very special chapter for me because I'll be getting to use the skills I've acquired in Japanese over the years, as well as Internet websites that helped me formulate an idea of what Jack would sound like as a samurai in ancient Japan. From the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode "Speak No Evil", we see that Jenny is capable of speaking multiple languages, including Japanese. She primarily speaks the Tokyo standard dialect with the use of feminine plain form, ending questions with particle "no" instead of the particle "ka". Within Japanese, however, there are polite forms and humble forms of expressions that formed in relation to speaking to the emperor. Samurais and other beings of that status would most likely use "gozaimasu" instead of "desu" at the end of their sentences to express even more politeness to their feudal lord or "daimyo". Jenny, not having one and gaining her language skills from a time further into Japan's future than Jack, does not use such forms of expression, making conversations interesting and possibly hard to follow.

Speaking of which, now that things have calmed down, let's go check on them, shall we?

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

4

In the forest by a vast green meadow, the samurai and the robot girl stopped for the night. As the samurai tried to prepare a fire by rubbing sticks and twigs together, the robot girl eased his hands away from the pile and lit it with a single laser shot from her palm. The moment he tried to thank her, his stomach growled, prompting her to fire another shot up into the air with lightning reflexes.

A bird dropped in his lap. He hesitantly plucked its feathers, caught off guard by her power and generosity as the warmth came to his cheeks once again. "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it," she smiled.

Not knowing how to respond, he relied on his politeness. "Would you…like any?"

She shook her head. "I don't eat animals. In fact, I don't eat much at all. Oil and electricity are all I really need, and even then it's only once in a while. Most of the other robots I've seen here rely on synthetics."

"Synthetics?"

"Burnt carbon and hydrogen in a factory." Remembering the bird she shot, she pointed to it. "I could cook that for you, if you want."

"No. It is all right. You have done more than enough."

"Oh. Okay." She rubbed the back of her neck as she mumbled. "I just thought it'd be quicker."

"Life is not always about doing things as quickly as possible. While to live life fast would be convenient, to live it slowly shows gratitude for what life provides."

"Gratitude…"

Jack skewered the plucked bird and began to roast it over the fire. "You have made me curious, though, Ms. Wakeman."

"Please, call me Jenny."

"Very well. You say that robots of here rely on synthetic oil rather than crude oil. What is the difference between them?"

"Well, the main difference is that one's made below ground, and one's made above ground, _heh_. But, yeah. Robots are filled with nothing but gears and bolts, and oil keeps their pistons running and their joints from locking into place and prevent them from moving. Synthetic oil isn't real oil, but made to feel like it. It's got a darker color than real oil, which is brown."

"I see. I may have encountered foes with this substance you describe. But I believe it also has links with Aku."

"Really?"

Jack nodded. "I have drawn forth a black, foul substance from them with my blade. Yet there have been times when I would watch it slither away before me. I suspect Aku is the driving force behind the substance you call 'synthetic'."

"Or it could mean that Aku is in charge of robot production and care."

"So it would appear." Jack lifted the bird away from the fire, and began to eat quietly.

In the silence that gathered between them, owls hooted and animals chirped to one another.

Jenny's eyes flickered back and forth between the fire and the samurai. Then another thought came to her. "That's right! You're a samurai! That must mean you're from Japan, which means…"

Jack slowed his chewing of the bird as he listened to several of her own beeps within her mouth.

Yet the moment she opened her mouth, a language he had not heard in a long time came from her lips. "_Atashi, nihongo ga chotto warui desu ga_…"

(I'm little bad at Japanese, but…)

Jack shook his head. "_Ina,_ _jitsu, sessha ha yoku de gozaranu._"

(No, it is _I _who isn't good).

"_Waa! Nihongo ni mo nante reigi tadashii no yo! Sore ni, ano hougen ga suteki na no yo!_"

(My gosh, you're so polite in your Japanese, too! Even more so, that dialect is amazing!)

The samurai laughed. "I must admit that you're way of speaking is a bit hard for me to follow. Perhaps it is a different dialect than my own, but from what I hear, you are not bad at yours at all."

Jenny giggled. "_Joudan yamete kure… Anata no soba ni suwatte hazukashii no yo!_"

(Please don't joke with me. I feel embarrassed sitting next you!)

Jack held out his hand to the robot girl. "_Sonna ni omoeru de nai zo_. _Wareware mikata zo._"

(Don't think that way. We're allies.)

The girl calmed her giggling, her blue lights brighter than ever. She took his soft hand in her cool one, smiling as warmly as he did. "Till the end."

"Until the end," he agreed, shaking it once. He ate the rest of the bird in silence as Jenny thought of another question when he finished.

"Jack?"

"Yes."

"I'm already familiar with the scimitars and a couple of other swords, but I don't think my mother programmed me to wield a _katana_. Is it possible if you…could teach me how to wield it? In exchange, I could teach you more about the workings of robots and all that."

Jack thought over her words. It was not to be an instantaneous process, even with her reflexes and strong ability to think logically as a robot. Yet it was apparent that she displayed emotions that made her very human — more human than many of the creatures and machinery he encountered.

He did not wish for her to lose her spirit in the midst of violence.

"I only asked you because you're so powerful and strong with it, and maybe, somehow I could get stronger too. But it's okay, if you don't want to."

"No. I will teach you."

Jenny clasped her hands and brightened. "You will?"

"But I will not teach you the way of the '_katana_'."

Her shoulders slumped. "You…you won't?"

"I am sure that you are a master at wielding many weapons, but to wield a _katana _is not like wielding any other weapon. To learn its use is to also learn a way of life." His eyes pierced straight into Jenny's. "I shall teach you _bushido_, the way of the warrior."

"The 'warrior'?" Her fist clenched. "But…I already _am_ one. I've taken down Cluster Prime and put it back together. I've saved Tremorton dozens of times. And once I beat Aku…" Her words trailed off. "I…I don't know. But the point is, Jack, I _am_ a warrior. All I want to learn is how to use a different kind of sword. I might be a warrior in a teenage body, but that's who I am."

The samurai could do nothing but close his eyes and draw a single breath. "Forgive me, Jenny-_san_, but I must disagree."

"So you won't teach me, then."

"No. I will teach you if you are willing to be taught, but _only_ if you are willing. With that, I suggest you get some rest. We shall start at dawn."

A dark chuckle rose from Jenny's throat. "_Mou wasureta no? Atashi ga robotto yo. Itsumo nenakute mo ii._"

(Did you forget already? I'm a robot. I don't always need to sleep.)

"True, but they still need energy."

Jenny gave a small chuckle, gathering her knees. "_Sou…da ne._"

(I...guess so.)


	5. Chapter 5

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. Thanks for waiting. I was originally going to have this up with chapter 4, but I decided to split it into a separate chapter. I like the feel of having near a thousand words or so per chapter. That being said, I don't know how many scenes/chapters I'll write, but I think they'll be around that length.

Also, please forgive me. I don't have a lot of knowledge about wielding the katana, as I've never taken a martial art class in my life. But that doesn't mean I won't try my best by using the Internet (Howcast is being my best friend right now). Even more so, Jenny might help me by knowing all the basics beforehand.

Let's get started, shall we?

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

5

As she said, Jenny did not sleep. Keeping watch for Jack as he slept gave her time to recalibrate data links in her head, but also let her grow bored. She was surprised, however, to see that at the first streak of the sun's read, Jack's eyes fluttered open. She did not need to wake the warrior, it seemed, for he had become so in tune with the birds and beings around him that they told his spirit to stir.

He stood, then looked at the tree above him. With a single swipe, he cut two of its tree branches with his sword. The samurai then shaved away their unnecessary twigs.

Within that quick flash, Jenny saw his intentions. She captured the dimension of the sword and speed at with which he drew it and tried forming a sword of her own. It was makeshift, but she had found she had enough metal and prototypical designs from her mother on her drive to do it.

Jack turned to watch her hand grip around a long, dark blue hilt. Jutting from the fixture was a thin, curved blade much like the one at his side.

He frowned, narrowing his eyes. "No. We will not be using swords yet."

"It's okay, Jack," Jenny smirked. "You're my teacher. You wouldn't hurt me."

"Earning the respect of your weapon comes first. Wielding it comes last."

She let out a sigh and reformed her arm. "But I've mastered a ton of weapons already! Can't we just skip the basics?"

"No. That is not how I was taught." Once the sticks were properly shaved, he offered her one. "Come with me, please."

The request was a command to Jenny's auditory sensors. The "please" was not necessary, as she would have followed him just as easily without it. Nonetheless, she took the stick, wondering just how different the way of the warrior could be from that of a sword or other weapons.

The pair had a reached a clearing in the meadow where the grass was no taller than their ankles. The wind barely picked up the fine green strands.

"The path to becoming a warrior is not easy, but it can be done," the samurai began. "Through training and the application of _bushido_'s seven teachings, it is relatively simple to understand."

"Then tell me what the teachings are so we can get this over with," Jenny muttered.

"The first lesson you must learn, before you are to learn _bushido_'s teachings," he said, "is how to hold the sword. It is meant to be held with your right hand at the guard and the strength decreasing up the fingers, your thumb arriving as the weakest. The same is for your left hand, but…"

At the touch of Jack's callused hands from battle, Jenny's auditory sensors cut off. The lights in her cheeks buzzed softly. It was at that point she realized how close was he was to her without the slightest mention of it. He was no Don Prima, but —

"Jenny?"

She blinked, her head swerving. "What? Where? Who?"

"Were you listening?"

"What? Oh. Yes, I was… You said something about the right hand near the guard, and then my two bottom fingers should be gripping it the most. And my left, um… My left was supposed to…"

Jack sighed. He took her left hand once more and put it at the bottom of the hilt. "Please listen carefully, Jenny. If you don't, this will go by much more slowly than you wish."

"Right, sorry."

He was no Don Prima.

"Now, do you see how much control you have over your weapon now?"

That she knew for sure.

"Mm-hm…"

But he wasn't bad-looking either.

-.-.-.-

By sundown, Jenny had only learned two components of _bushido_. She had learned how to wield the sword and she had learned how to move it about. All of it was done slowly and deliberately, much to her annoyance, but Jack would not let her go faster, no matter her requests.

It was the most robotic she had felt in a long time. Picking up the sword, pushing and pulling the blade, swishing it to the left and swishing it to right… The rhythm calmed her mind and placed her in the familiar focus she was designed to have. Whereas a human would be driven insane by the monotony, discipline had been hardwired into her circuitry.

Carrying the emotional disturbances of a teenage girl, however, made mistakes come more easily.

_Brad… Tuck… I wonder how they're doing right now._

Her foot stuttered on top of the grass.

"Again," the samurai said.

And for the two-hundredth time, Jenny completed the exercise. This time, with no mistakes. She nearly started the sequence again before Jack told her to stop.

The taut smile of his said it all. "Well done."

"Tch. I had it memorized the moment you showed it to me. I have a lot of RAM for things far more complex."

"RAM? Like the animal?"

Jenny chuckled. "Well, then, I guess that'll be your first lesson from me. 'RAM' is shorthand for 'random access memory'. It's what helps robots and computers like me recall things in the short term right away. Long term memory is copied onto my solid disk drive."

"Those components make up… your brain?"

"Sort of. That's more of the CPU's job."

Jack blinked, processing what information he could. "Well, then… You shall have to tell me about it in greater detail this evening. We are done for today."

-.-.-.-

"Aku."

The master of darkness swiftly turned to find a tiny human concealed with a black cloak. The being squinted his fiery eyes, almost snarling. It was always some human that was bold and defiant enough to believe that they were better than the master of darkness. It was the same with that samurai and the annoying man with a gun for a leg.

But perhaps this time, the human would be entertaining, and so he asked the little man at his feet, "Who dare utter my name without the respect it deserves?"

"Akuji Yokoshima, the man who's going to capture XJ9 without fail."

The demon rapped his claws against the armrest. Did he hear him correctly? Did the words "without fail" come out of his mouth? He had heard those words from many a man before. What made him different from the others?

"What is your proof?"

"I encountered a friend of hers and ensnared him with my dark arts. He resides at my home with my wife."

"Show me on this portal."

The man cloaked in black waved a hand over the quivering imagery. In its place appeared a young man bound by the wrists to a pipe in a dark, steaming boiler room. Gagged at the mouth with a cloth, he wriggled to try and get himself free, but went limp the moment the enchanted rope drained his energy.

"When asked about XJ9, he answered well," Yokoshima said. "He said his name was — "

"I don't care what the boy's name is," Aku seethed. "If this will lure that robot girl to you, then do it. It is the samurai she is with that I want dead. Bring the samurai dead to me, and then we shall see if you live to regret your boldness."

"Yes, Master."

"Talk is cheap, Yokoshima. You may soon learn that the hard way."


	6. Chapter 6

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone.

Guess who's the music composer for Samurai Jack _and_ My Life as a Teenage Robot? James L. Venable. If Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon's people weren't working in tandem with one another, I don't think this fanfiction would be working so well right now.

Yes. Sorry. Just had to share that fun fact.

Also, I apologize in advance, this is a rather short chapter. I'll try to write more in the future. I sort of have to. You'll see what I mean.

-.-.-.-

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

6

"And that's what the CPU does."

Jack listened to Jenny with a furrowed brow before nodding very slowly. "I…think I understand."

"I could explain it again if you don't."

"No. It's fine. I don't need for you to repeat your explanation. I just had to think about it and things became sorted out. Like…what the central processing unit does."

"I guess that's a good way to think about things. Applying them to what you know, maybe your life…"

"That is _bushido_'s way as well."

"Of learning?"

"Yes."

"I see."

Tonight, Jack ate a squirrel whose fur had been perfectly cleaned before it was peeled off. As before Jenny insisted on helping, but he did not let her do more than make the fire and catch the animal. It was he who ended its life and made the final decision, something he never seemed to let her do now that she was learning _bushido_, the way of the warrior and a way of life.

What made the two inextricably tied together left Jenny to her own devices until Jack spoke to her.

"Do believe in helping those in need because they're in need, not because they're related to you?

Jenny sat up straighter. "Of course. I've saved plenty of people in Tremorton that I still don't know."

"Even if you don't know them, do you treat them equally?"

"Well, nobody's equal. Some robots are better than others. Some…humans are better than others, but nobody loosens my screws or anybody else's without permission."

"What would these people say of you?"

"That I've made some mistakes trying to fit in, but… I'd never lie to any of them unless it was so I could get closer to stopping the real problem."

"Then they could depend on you?"

"Yes. I mean… I was once a vigilante, but it was because I had to stop Vexus from controlling her people and keeping them ignorant."

"Which means you believe in fighting for what is honorable and what is right without fear?"

"If that's what you think, then sure."

"Then you know of _bushido_'s seven teachings."

Jenny blinked. "But how could I know them when you haven't even told me what they are?"

"Because you have experienced them. Benevolence to those who are weaker, respect to those who may be different, honesty to those who you know, loyalty to who know you, honor for sacrificing, righteousness for releasing a people from their ignorance, and courage in the face of evil…" The samurai look straight into Jenny's eyes. "You most certainly have the qualities of a warrior."

"That's what I was trying to tell you _before_." Jenny sighed. "I told you I was a warrior last night, but you didn't believe me."

"I disagreed with you because I believed that you are a warrior of a different kind, Jenny-_san_."

"And what kind of warrior did you have in mind?"

"A warrior that is skilled in many areas, but does not understand the preciousness of life."

"What are you _talking_ about? I know how precious life is, especially my friend's lives and the lives of the people of Tremorton!"

"Life is everywhere, Jenny-_san_. It is in the grass at our feet, the trees behind us, and even robots we have destroyed made of metal."

The robot girl quieted.

"You may not have a beating heart, but you are a being that thinks and fights for justice. Life is defined by will and spirit, not by blood."

"But death is defined when it's spilled? Is that what you're getting at?"

"Yes."

The image of the robot in the bar that had approached her all those days ago came back to her in a flash. The attempt failed to make her regret what she did to the robot named Vinny.

"What if they deserved it?" she said.

"On what grounds?"

"On the grounds they were being disrespectful to me."

Jack gnawed carefully on his squirrel. The robots she lashed out towards in the bar were fresh in his memory. "If they did not threaten your life, or the lives of others, there is no reason for you to harm them. Warriors act in the name of justice, not unbalanced irrationality."

"But how do I find that balance? Where do I need to set things straight?"

The samurai brought his skewer down, free of the squirrel. He blew out the fire, and told Jenny one word before he fell asleep like before next to a tree.

The word kept Jenny awake instead of letting her battery rest. Thoughts of all kinds sifted through her CPU, where she sorted them out. Yet what she always thought were emotions made them keep coming back.

_What I did… was irrational? No… I'm a robot. I'm rational. Everything I do is based on ones and zeros. On or off. True or false. Right or wrong. What I did back there… I did that. I gave them hell to pay._

_I gave them…more than one. More than me. I gave them Vinny and everybody else in the bar on the floor… battered and bruised._

_I gave them two._

_Two options. Leave me alone or face me alone._

_And yet both of them include the very thing I can find that balance._

_I can find it in me._


	7. Chapter 7

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone.

I'm glad most of you are enjoying my fanfiction so far. It makes me happy to know I'm doing something right in terms of writing. It's not what I usually do; that's for sure.

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

Well, sort of a spoiler. It's not for the entire story, but for this chapter. There's a cliffhanger. A bit of a volatile one. But it is a cliffhanger in which two sides are needed to resolve it. Therefore, I encourage you not to think of this as definitive but open to possibilities. That is what a writer is supposed to do, keep things shrouded in mystery and entertain. And now I'm exercising that a bit. Also, think of this cliffhanger as a good thing. It will mean that I will be bound to resolve it in the next chapter.

Can't wait to see you then.

-.-.-.-

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

7

While training, the samurai and robot girl fortunately encountered no enemies. At the word of Jack they traveled as much as they trained. Each day held with it a new landscape, a new meadow, or a new forest to hide and to learn.

Hide among the eyes of the bounty hunters and learn how to face them, but not Aku.

The idea of meditation was at first an anomaly to Jenny. The way in which Jack described the phenomenon held spiritual connotations, to which she did not readily believe. She knew that birds chirped and held life, but a rock? A blade of grass, yes. But water? They held plankton and other forms of life. But there is no life in still things.

There was no life in what she was made of.

It was a state between sleeping and consciousness that she did not readily understand, and Jack admitted that because she was a robot and held different workings, meditation would not be an easy concept to grasp.

Her training in combat, however, progressed as it normally did. With flourish, the robot girl memorized the samurai's techniques and stances with the katana. As he would call them out in rapid succession, she soon found she could make beautiful strings of attacks across the grass, all the while moving gracefully.

Not stiffly, or with nuts and bolts popping into place.

Within the month that they had found each other, Jenny could not find the instant where she had changed. It was seamless to her, and she did not know why. Was it the part that made her human, wanting to learn out of curiosity and the need for strength? Or robot in her, doing what she was told without mistakes?

The question kept coming to her in her mind as she meditated, or did her best to, and the answer did not come.

"Jenny-_san_."

The robot girl opened her eyes and stood. "I think I get it now."

"What do you understand?"

"Why a rock is a living thing."

The samurai blinked under his straw hat. "Please, tell me."

"You can't see it right away, but it's alive. It can move when someone picks it up and carries it along. It can get worn from the rain. It can be broken. It can be mended and reborn. Just like me. Just like if I were to get an upgrade or one of my parts got busted. The rock can't talk or anything like that. But it can still be changed, redefined, and defend itself against things that aren't as strong as it.

"That's what having a life is. It's the will to live, to learn, and to not be broken in the face of evil. Right?"

For a moment, Jack was rendered speechless. What he knew about this young robot girl was still very little. But if anything, he knew that she had changed for the better. Her anger at the rest of the world had disappeared, and she looked to him with eyes that still had much to learn, but knew what was right and just.

He placed a hand on the robot girl who was barely his height, and smiled. "Yes."

At every instance the samurai touched her, Jenny could not help the lights in her cheeks from buzzing on. She had directed power elsewhere so they would not be as bright when with him, but that did not prevent the feeling of warmth in her engine's core from overtaking her.

She gave a small smile in reciprocation, but it faded the moment old memories of her fascination with Don Prima and other boys at Tremorton High.

Casting away those thoughts, she took her stick up form off the ground and began her mischievous banter. "So, what'll it be today, _sensei_? The usual stuff or some new things? Brad and Tuck always said I did best with learning new things, but Sheldon always said it never really mattered."

The samurai chuckled. The times she'd talk about her friends were always the times where he'd see her truest smile. "Well… I suppose you could you say a bit of both."

"How so?"

"Because I believe you are disciplined enough and ready to put those skills into action."

Jenny's pistons skipped a beat.

After all the time of urging him that she would pick up _bushido_ right away — after all her outbursts of impatience and anger, she had finally earned her moment to spar with him.

Even with all that, Jenny now found it harder to do the same.

"I can't," said the robot girl to the samurai. "I'm not ready. I still don't know all the techniques yet!"

"You are ready, Jenny-_san_. It is your mind that must be set free of the fears which hold your body back."

To jenny, the mind and body were irrelevant concepts. They were two ways of saying the same thing from her point of view. In that moment paralyzed with fear — an emotion her mother had to explain to her several times — the two became separated at Jack's calming words.

With their separation, however, she could not move. The sensation was too foreign.

"The true question, Jenny-_san_, is if you are ready to accept that failure is not the end."

Failure… She was a robot. She was designed. There was no room for such a notion.

Yet how could a samurai, so strong and powerful, reach this conclusion? For he, too, held emotions that he kept back. She could feel them, just as she could feel what she thought were her own. What had he seen that had made him become so gentle, yet strong? So kind, yet pained?

If she could have taken a deep breath to offset her worries, Jenny would have done so the moment she lifted her arms above her head and brought them down to fists at her side. "I'm ready."

"Good."

The moment Jack bowed, brought out his stick, and leveled it to meet her, Jenny's heart grew numb. She matched his movements, but they were not as controlled as his.

Not yet.

But she resolved they would be.

A gust of wind played at the edges of their feet. The summer air swelled and dampened with heat, causing Jenny's metal to expand. The coolant in her system kept her from beginning.

"_Kakugo sei!_"

("Prepare yourself!")

The robot girl did as she was told, wielding her sword with the proper grip.

With the first step of the samurai, they had begun their circular dance, poised and ready to strike. The robot girl moved fluidly, not letting the bolts at her ankles stiffen once. The clack of the samurai's sandals were barely audible against the grass and dirt from the forest.

The sky began to turn a bloody red.

And before Jenny knew that they had circled each other twice, the samurai made his move.

The speed at which he drew his weapon never ceased to amaze Jenny. She was also thankful that he played the role of the opposition to give her time to think, despite it being very little. With this time, she barely parried his blow before he made another to her side.

Stepping back provided time, but it was no space for her mind to calculate each of his moves. Her reflexes were fire in oil, but that made no difference. Restricted to one style, she could not let other attacks she would have made come in. And so she parried and defended countless times before she even attempted to strike him.

Moments later, as she brought her stick down to attack his shoulder, Jack swiveled and struck below her arm. Her metal coating resounded in a dull thud.

The samurai stood back up, tucking his stick between his cloth. "Very good, Jenny-_san_. That will be all for today."

"Wh… What?"

"Do not feel discouraged. You did very well."

The more silent the air became, the more Jack grew concerned. "Jenny-_san_?"

There was no way else she could put it the more she stared at him. As she stared at the samurai, her face lay on the verge of a young woman about to cry and the warrior who would not allow it. Yet no tears came to help her answer the question.

Like the rock, she would be changed by what die fate had cast from its hands. For the moment the robot girl closed her eyes, she spoke the words she knew she couldn't take back to the gentle, yet strong enigma that was the samurai.

"I think I love you."


	8. Chapter 8

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone.

Not much to say, other than I hope you keep enjoying my fanfiction as much as I am. Today's chapter includes a piece of Japanese mythology: the origin of the Tanabata Festival, starring the loves Orihime and Hikoboshi. I would think that Jack knows a little bit of mythology considering he told the story of Momotaro to a lost baby.

In a similar way, Jack is helping a lost robot girl gain her own footing.

-.-.-.-

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

8

A breeze swiveled past them. One by one, the stars began to make themselves known. The sky held no clouds in the summer night.

"Jack, I — "

"Jenny-_san_."

The robot girl stood without motion, not even blinking as she waited for his words.

Instead, he took her by the hand, and brought her down to sit in the grass with him.

With his other, he pointed at the dark, protruding line across the stars. "Look up there."

"Why?"

"Just look, Jenny-_san_."

The robot girl gazed into his eyes, trying to find an answer. But as was his nature, he did not give it. And so she looked. "What do you want me looking at?"

"Do you see the two brightest stars up there? Across that river of stars?"

"Yes. Those are Altair and Vega."

"In Japan, where I come from, they are named Orihime and Hikoboshi."

"Orihime? And Hikoboshi?"

He nodded. His gaze turned to the glittering jewels in the sky.

"Orihime is the daughter of the King of Heaven. She and the rest of the gods live on the other side of the Amanogawa River, the river of stars. By the banks of the river, Orihime weaves the most magnificent clothing for the gods to wear. Growing up, young Orihime would work day after day, barely going outside to meet anyone and fall in love. And with each day she worked, she grew sadder and lonelier. Yet once she became of age, her father arranged for her to be married.

"The King of Heaven wished for her daughter to marry someone who was just as strong and hardworking as she was, and so he arranged for a man by the name of Hikoboshi to marry Orihime. Hikoboshi was a cow herder who lived on the other side of the Amanogawa River. The two fell deeply in love, finding common ground in their strength and finding even more strength in their deepening friendship.

"Yet the two had fallen so much in love that they neglected their duties. Orihime would no longer make clothing for the other gods. Hikoboshi would let the cows wander all across the celestial plain. At this, the King grew mad, and would not tolerate the imbalance in his kingdom. Thus he separated Orihime and Hikoboshi, forcing them to live on the separate sides of the river.

"However, the two still did not work. They missed each other greatly, keeping their minds from focusing on their duties. The sight of King Heaven's daughter in tears once more made him reconsider. He told Hikoboshi and his daughter that they would meet on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year every year, and _only_ that day, for they still had roles to fulfill. At the sound of this, Orihime began her weaving once again, looking forward to the day she could meet Hikoboshi, who was fueled at the thought of seeing her as he herded his cows.

"The two could meet if the seventh day of the seventh month was a cloudless night much like this. In order to do so, a flock of magpies created the bridge across the river that would let them meet and hold each other in their arms. Otherwise, if the night was cloudy, they would have to wait until next year to try again. So far, it has never been the case, and the two lovers have been able to meet ever since."

"Jack…"

"Jenny-_san_…" The samurai turned to the robot girl, taking both her hands. His expression matched hers: a sadness that did not dare to overflow the river across his heart.

"You are a very good friend and a noble soul. In the land of Aku, such beings are hard to come by, and I thank the gods for bringing me to you. There is no doubt I care for you very deeply, but I am afraid that I do not feel the same way towards you that you feel towards me."

"And even if you did, you wouldn't be able to…" Jenny whispered, her gears stiffening. "Because you're Hikoboshi, and I'm Orihime. We both need to go back to our own worlds and times."

"Even more so, Jenny-_san_, I am not worthy of your hand, nor anyone else's, in love."

"_Sonna koto iwanaide yo!_"

("Don't say things like that!")

Jack's hands twitched at her burst. He had forgotten just how much passion this young woman carried.

"Jack, you are the strongest, kindest, most amazing human being I've ever met! I wish you weren't so humble sometimes and just let yourself look at all the things you've managed to do! If there's anyone that doesn't deserve anybody to love, it's me! I should have found Aku the moment I stepped out of that space pod, but it's been months since I've had any kind of lead or found my friends! I've just been so confused! And…"

The robot girl began to hitch, closing her eyes. No tears fell from her face, but the samurai was all too familiar with the human sound of sorrow. He had seen it in the women whose villages had been destroyed at the hands of Aku, whose lives could not be brought back.

The feeling of utter loneliness, confusion, and failure combined.

In that moment, the samurai let go of her hands. He let her cry on his shoulder as he cradled her head in his arms.

It was a feeling he knew all too well.


	9. Chapter 9

**UPDATE:** It is times like these that I must thank those who are following the story very carefully and keeping me on check, as there seems to have been a place where I wasn't overtly clear. I wrote that Jack's sword "snapped into Akuji's hands", when in reality I meant to say "fly straight into Akuji's hands" very quickly. I had no intent of Jack's sword snapping in two like a twig, so my apologies if I was not clear. I've since corrected this phrase to "fly straight into Akuji's hands".

Thanks, Noob6.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. Sorry I took so long to update. I've been having a very relaxing summer thus far, and have also been writing stories with a friend of mine. However, this most certainly doesn't mean I'm done writing this story.

I suppose it only means it gets better from here.

-.-.-.-

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

9

Winter was approaching fast. The robot girl and samurai knew that they would be caught in the snow unless they traveled inland. They had managed to find peace in the meadow and train, but only briefly, as they knew staying one place was far too risky, and staying in one place while being caught in the weather was another.

The chilling winds caused the robot girl's metal workings to slightly contract. Her battery power was slowly draining as the sun kept hidden with more and more clouds. Revving up her thermostat, however, provided some defrosting relief in small bursts.

The samurai could only keep his arms inside his gi's sleeves as a means of keeping warm.

"Jack, look!"

The samurai followed the robot girl's finger. In the distance, a tiny yellow cottage lay alone in the end of the pathway further into the trees. Yet behind it was a larger smokestack, along with several generators and steam from hot springs.

"It looks…like a bathhouse," the samurai blinked.

"It also looks like they use the steam of the hot springs to create electrical power." The robot girl looked at the samurai. "Maybe we should stop there? I can recharge, and, well… I guess you could too with a hot bath."

"If we do stop there, we should be careful not to stay there for too long. I do not want anyone to follow us."

"Neither do I, but this place seems nice enough."

The pair made their way to the tiny cottage, finding that it was not truly tiny at all. It extended further back along with even more smokestacks that were nestled in the tress surrounding them.

At the foot of the steps sat a round-faced woman, folding white cloths and placing them into a basket. At the sound of the travelers footsteps, she looked up, her almond-shaped, brown eyes brightening as she stood to greet them.

"Welcome! Welcome!" She smiled. "Are you both here for a bath?"

Jenny blinked. "Um… No, I'm a robot. I can't take those. Water, circuitry, you know. But I don't suppose you have a generator, do you?"

"Oh, yes, yes! We do! Stay as long as you like! Here, come in! Make yourself at home!" She gathered the cloths in the basket and waved to them inside.

The inside led to a wood-thatched hall. Warm steam mixed with salts as well as herbal remedies for other ailments as other customers and servants traveled in robes or kimonos.

The woman stepped up to the counter, placing the baskets at her feet. "I'm Kame."

Whereas the samurai kept quiet, inspecting the area under the brim of his straw hat, Jenny's spirits lifted even further at the calming atmosphere. "Pleased to meet you, Kame."

"Now, let's see. The charging is by the hour, one hundred volts, one hundred pieces... And what'll it be for you today, sir? An herbal soak? Or just the hot springs?"

"The hotsprings, please."

"Good. Aku-chan! We have more guests!"

The samurai gripped his sword and stepped in front of Jenny. "_Aku_?!"

From further down the hall, a man could be heard sighing as he came closer to the pair. "Honey, how many times have I told you I don't like being called that? It scares away customers."

"But that's your name, dear…"

"And it's a name I do not care for." The man stepped into view, his long black hair tucked back in a waist-length ponytail. Dressed in an equally dark hakama and shirt, his own brown eyes stared curiously at the pair, the samurai protectively in front of the robot who looked just as confused.

He sighed again, giving them a warm smile, almost happy to see them. "Please. There's no need for your weapon, sir. It would simply cause a mess for both of us."

The samurai quietly stepped away. "Would you care telling me your name?"

"Akuji Yokoshima. Kame is my wife." He stepped to her and wrapped a gentle arm around her waist. "It is quite the volatile name, and Aku is quite the volatile, violent being. We are just a humble couple, and we wish for no trouble. You are the first customers we have had in a long time. They hear my name, and they tend to flee."

"That's… so sad," Jenny muttered.

The samurai let go of his hilt and bowed to them. "You must forgive me. I have seen much in my travels, and names tend to be the only things that remain in my memory—names belonging to good and bad."

"And that is why I insist on calling him Aku-chan," said Kame, holding him tighter. "I love him. It's not the name that makes a person. It's their actions."

"But even then, it hasn't been easy," Akuji said. "I hope that with our services you shall see us as the good kind. We do not approve of Aku's ways, and that is why we have chosen to live in seclusion. Come, let us get you settled in."

The samurai and the robot girl made their way quietly through the Yokoshima Bath House. Their eyes did not make contact with the other patrons, but were nonetheless mystified at how the workers seemed to move across each room without so much as a glance at each other. No amount of the floor was cracked, nor the walls. The running water from the springs outside and inside were all that could be heard in the facility.

Seclusion had not given this place neglect, much to the samurai's approval. They were hard workers and peace-loving folk, and that was all the samurai ever asked for in a friend.

The power and strength of the generators rumbled beneath Jenny's feet. Their knowledge and care in electricity made her feel more at ease, as well their harmony with nature — a newfound aspect she'd grown to respect.

"The generators are down that way," Akuji pointed. "For your charging, Ms. Wakeman."

For a brief moment, a spark of regret caused Jenny's eyes to twitch to the samurai, who did the same beneath the brim of his hat. They had traveled together for so long that the idea of separation felt foreign, even within this calm, warm space.

Jenny, however, was the first to nod to the Yokoshimas. "Thank you."

With just as short of a nod, Kame led the robot girl down the hall.

"The hot springs are in the other direction, Mr…" He trailed off, scratching his chin. "I'm sorry. I don't think I caught your name."

"They call me Jack."

"Just Jack?"

"Yes."

"Very well. If you'd be so kind as to follow me…"

The samurai did as he was told, his sandals clacking calmly yet cautiously. The lone hot spring awaited him in a pool outlined by grey weathered rocks. A robe and towels were carefully laid at the edge. Several pools stretched farther and farther out into what Jack thought to have been a garden, as tall bamboo stalks whipped back and forth into the air.

"It is…beautiful," the samurai uttered quietly.

"Yes. Kame and I were lucky to have found this place."

The samurai's sword began to float of Jack's sash and into the air, much to Jack's shock as he watched it fly straight into Akuji's hands.

The sorcerer smirked as he unsheathed the blade. "We were also lucky to have found you."

-.-.-.-

"_Ahhh..._ This feels great."

The robot girl sat in a reclining chair, her battery being charged a simply outlet in the wall.

"Let me know if you need anything, my dear," Kame smiled.

"Nah, I'm good. The current's super strong. I'll be out of here in no time."

"Very well."

A warm smile of content was all that lay on her face as she closed her eyes. _Hmm…what should we do now? I mean, besides get Aku. That's priority number one. But everything else…_

**_Thump, thump, thump!_**

The sound jolted Jenny's sensors. It came from _behind her_.

Behind the chair.

The wall.

And then she heard yelling.

The voice was hoarse. Whoever was behind there had been yelling for a long time. They were in far more distress than her circuitry could tolerate.

She rose from the chair, unplugged herself from the wall, and walked out of the room in search of the one she heard.

At the end of the hall lay a room labeled "CAUTION: BOILER ROOM". Keeping her auditory sensors alert, the voice grew stronger the more she walked towards the door. She looked for any employees briefly before slipping inside.

The room was far from the word _hot_. _Dark, damp_, and _red_ were the more appropriate words to describe it. The pipes crawled in and over the workings, and even the stairs seemed to threaten to give way from the rust. Steam hovered everywhere as water was carried upward to the mechanical baths and the patrons that asked for them.

Yet the voice Jenny heard grew louder and weaker, descending into moans of madness.

It came from a male stranger tied to a pipe by a black cloth. All they wore was a bair of briefs and a sack to cover their head. His cries were muffled, common of those gagged by a cloth.

The sound, so familiar to her for a reason she couldn't explain, wrenched Jenny's emotional core, overriding her standard protocols of asking him questions and telling him he was going to be okay.

She simply pulled the sack off the stranger's head and gasped.

"Sheldon?!"


	10. Chapter 10

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. As a college sophomore right now, writing fanfiction has, sadly, become a priority on the bottom of my giant list of priorities in life. And while it may seem to the contrary with how quiet I have been, you must believe me when I say that I get every private message, every review, every follow, and/or favorite of this story, and that I appreciate every single one.

This is a project I decided to undertake at a very important transition in my life, and that is my fault for not being brave enough to push ahead with this idea sooner and thus, get it done sooner. However, rest assured that while I'm in college, I'm only going to get better as a writer, and I hope it comes through in this piece that I have been chipping away that.

I cannot thank you enough for your patience in my times of hectic business. As for how long it will be, I never intended it for it to be a largely epic tale of thirty or forty some-odd chapters. I intend it to read like a thirty minute television show that could either air on Samurai Jack or My Life as a Teenage Robot. My initial plans were to aim it for fifteen, but that may change. Yet no matter what the story length, I hope that I shall bring it to a satisfying conclusion for the both of us.

Thank you again, and let's get back into the fray.

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

10

Akuji inspected the samurai's blade, turning it over in several times in his wrist. The fading sunlight of winter glinted against the metal.

"Such… _exquisite_ craftsmanship…" the sorcerer muttered.

"Give that back to me," said Jack, scowling. "Or I shall show you why it was made."

"Oh, no. I know why it was made. Otherwise, Aku would have no want or need of you. With this sword you're a threat to him. But without it, you're not a threat to either of us. Which is why I've come to you with a proposition."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't care about money, which is what Aku will give me if I return you dead at his feet. But your pretty friend, on the other hand…" At these words, his smirk became wider than before. "While I'm a sorcerer by trade, I've done a bit of tinkering in mechanics, such as the steam powered generator in the back over there. And I can only imagine with her inner core and this beautiful blade of yours that I'd create quite the weapon… if you let me keep them. You'd both probably be quite depressed for the most part, but at least your lives would be spared."

Jack's chest clenched in swelling, fiery anger. "No.I will do no such thing."

"Hmm… Very well." Akuji lifted the blade above his head, a malevolent black glow beginning to surround it. "She and you shall not be spared by me… or my wife."

-.-.-

It had been seven months, three days, six hours, and approximately forty seven minutes since Sheldon had last seen Jenny Wakeman. His eyes watered in joy at the sight of her, but also in pain at how much the cloth at his wrists, instead of the enchanted rope they'd used on him before, continued to cut off blood to his wrists. Sweat covered his thin, shriveling body from head to toe, meshing with the tears that escaped his eyelids.

He tried saying her name, but all that came out form his gagged mouth were a pair of stuttered sob-like moans.

The robot girl, upon seeing him, was paralyzed in a mandatory five-second stupor from her emotional chip. Once over, she hugged him. Her cold metal was a relief to the unbearably hot, steaming boiler room.

"Oh, Sheldon… You have no idea how glad I am to see you," she told him, her voice quivering. "Don't worry. I'm going to get you out."

Parting from him, she quickly began to untie the black cloth tied around his wrists and the pie, but the engineer and inventor shook his head in frantic snaps and moans against the cloth in his mouth.

She recoiled, her nerves lighting up in suspicion. "Sheldon, what's wrong? We've got to get you out of here!"

"_Nnnn trrrr drrr krrrrr! Nnnn!_" He bared his teeth against the cloth, trying to speak.

Unable to process his words, Jenny started untying the cloth behind his neck. Thinking he was hallucinating from the isolation, she tried speaking to him in a more calming manner. "Sheldon, don't you recognize me? It's Jenny. We're going to be okay."

The wet cloth finally out of his mouth, he coughed at the first gulp of air he took willingly and not when his caretaker had relieved him of the cloth to give him cold, refreshing water to drink. "No, Jenny! It's not okay!"

Jenny blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't touch…" He cleared his throat and coughed again, his dark hair clinging to his forehead. "Don't touch the cloth, Jenny. If you touch it, they'll come and get you."

Jenny blinked. "Who? Who will come?"

_Ssssssssssssss!_

A jet of steam covered the entire area, blinding Jenny and Sheldon. Shifting and clanking her arms into large fans, Jenny attempted to blow the steam back, but the blinding mist seemed to have a mind of its own, thickening with each rush of air.

Shifting the limbs back into arms, Jenny squinted at the steam to try and track anything inside, flipping the lens in her eyes to heat vision. However, she found that heat vision would barely do her any good, as everything was a blur of heat in the room. "No good. I'm going to try night vision."

"Jenny! On your left!"

A black, red-eyed bat clobbered Jenny onto the ground. Tucking her legs above her, she pushed it off and rolled back up onto her feet. Hands clanging and lengthening into her samurai sword, the topmost weapon program in her "recent battle mode" memory slot, she rushed into the steam, slicing at every new red-eyed shadow she saw. From bat, to cat, to mouse, to turtle, she pushed and diced them aside.

However, while their forms fizzed a bit from the force, they quickly regenerated attacked her again.

"Dammit!" Jenny yelled. "They just don't know when to give up!"

"Jenny, be careful! On your right!"

The robot girl only had a chance to turn thirteen degrees before she deflected the downward strike of two short swords, their clang resounding throughout the boiler room.

And while the mist still surrounded both of them, the grin of the woman who posed as Jenny's next challenger could be clearly seen through Jenny's night vision lenses.

"Kame…" Jenny breathed, turning her circuits up to the seventh gear.

The woman heard the robot girl's power core whine in anticipation for the battle, and she chuckled, raising her two blades. Her almond-shaped brown eyes gathered a blood-red shade.

"You should have stayed put and relaxed a bit more, my dear," she said, her voice tinged with a growl. "The charge you gained won't last you that long if you use it up on me."

"Then that's just the risk I'm going to have to take."

Sheldon shook against the pipe. "Jenny! No! Don't hurt her! She's possessed!"

But the robot girl did not take her friend's words to heart. The robot girl clenched her sword, and glowing with dark black magic, Kame and her demons attacked.

-.-.-

As the samurai watched Akuji engulf the sacred sword in his dark, flaming spirals, he had a brief moment of wonder if the man would succeed in possessing it. However, the moment, as said before, was brief. The sword was forged by his ancestors and the path of righteousness.

If he did not have faith in the sword, it would most certainly not come through.

The blacker the sword became, the whiter it started to glow, until the black was cast aside in a rain of smoldering black shards. The blinding light leftover seared Akuji's eyes, and as if the sword had grown too hot or infectious for him to hold, Akuji dropped it, covering his face in pained hisses.

The sword swiveled to Jack's feet, and with no time to waste, he grabbed it and headed off to find Jenny.

Akuji, however, was no quitter himself, and following close behind. The tatami mat floor of the hall began to rot and coagulate into thick, purple ooze, and Akuji had shot a fireball at him, just as Jack turned into the charging station, where he believe Jenny was. However, the robot girl was not inside, confusing Jack and allowing Akuji to catch up.

Enveloped in dark spirals, he unleashed them with a wide swing of his hands, and the samurai spun out the way, ducking behind a chair. The wall crashed, jetting splinters of wood into the air from the force. Steam and the clang of swords followed from the gaping hole.

"Jenny!" Sheldon called from below. "There's a demon coming right for — !"

_Shrrik!_

"Sheldon, I'm fine! Just stay right where you are!"

The samurai summersaulted from behind the chair into the gaping hole below, landing on a rusting staircase. Akuji's dark magic followed him, this time in claws that gripped his back, reeling him back up like a fish on a line. Yet with one swipe, the samurai cut the dark limbs off.

"_Aaauuuuughhhh!_" The sorcerer screamed, his magic fading like the demons he controlled in the space. "That sword… How can it have so much _power?!_"

At the exact moment, Kame's eyes went brown, and her limbs went limp. "What…"

"Kame! Get out of the way!" Sheldon cried.

But the robot girl, locked in her state of battle, programmed her to finish the job. Fortunately, the dazed woman did as Sheldon told her at the sight of Jenny's swords, but as Akuji jumped down to chase the samurai, her eyes returned to their blood-red shade, raising her swords to meet Jenny's with a wicked grin.

"Sheldon!" Jenny yelled, deflecting another blow from Kame. "Whose side are you on?!"

"I'm on yours!" he called back.

"Then start acting like it!"

"But, Jenny, she's not — !"

"Kame…" Akuji growled, thrusting away Jack's sword with a jagged line of darkness. "Do not hesitate. _Fight!"_

The dark creatures around them screeched at their master's command, and so did the poor woman keeping Jenny at bay. Her limbs spun and contorted into different shapes, meeting each of the robot girl's strikes. Soon Akuji's dark creatures surrounded the pair in a swirling black whirlwind, pushing the samurai and his robot student to back to back. The mist was hardly anything to blind them now that the demons were pushing up against them.

"Jenny-_san_…" The samurai grunted, his blade up in defense. "There are too many. We must divide and conquer."

"I agree, but there are two of us and maybe even hundreds of them. We won't be divided evenly."

A demon's clawed swipe at Jack's sword, eager to slay him when Akuji gave the command.

"I know," he said. "Which is why you must leave the demons, Akuji, and Kame to me, and rescue your friend."

Jenny scoffed. "How is that dividing and conquering?"

_Shinng!_

The demon Jack sliced at in the vortex sizzled in a radiant fire and faded to nothingness.

"Because my blade can vanquish these creatures," said the samurai. "And yours cannot."

"Jack, I'm not leaving you alone!"

"Jenny-_san_, you must trust me!"

The demonic whirlwind was nothing but claws now, battering against each of their swords. Sheldon's shouts were barely heard above the noise, and with one clean sweep of the samurai's sacred sword, a blazing rift in the whirlwind opened up.

"_Now, _Jenny-_san!_"


	11. Chapter 11

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, everyone. Thank you for sticking with me during this long haul.

Let's get back into the fray. Or should I say the whirlwind?

DISCLAIMER: Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot belong to Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti respectively along with any other proprietors. I do not own names that are not obviously mine.

11

Hundreds of creatures and only one man to stop them. Even though she had seen him take on the cat man and the snake, how was _one_ to go against _one hundred?_

The numbers didn't add up, and thus, Jenny hesitated when Jack opened the rift.

But only for a moment.

She leapt out of the rift, sword in hand and running toward Sheldon. Dispelling the whirlwind of demons, Akuji sent the creatures flying at Jack separately and in a madder frenzy than ever.

To each one, Jack sliced and shook off the ones craving his blood that attached to his back. Akuji and Kame winced at every turn, their power fading, but the tendrils from both of them kept coming at the samurai and the robot girl.

As Kame kept her stance and mist around her, Jenny rolled to Sheldon underneath the cloud. "Time get you out once and for all!" Readying a laser at her finger, she prepared to cut the rope.

A dark tendril snapped around Jenny's wrist.

"Kame! Please!" Sheldon yelled. "Don't give up!"

"Sheldon, calm down," Jenny said, trying to wriggle her arm free. "You might get heat stroke in here."

Akuji screamed once more when the samurai cut off his limbs of darkness. He coughed, writhing on the ground. "Kameee… Agh… If you listen to him, I will kill you! Do you understand? I will end your life!"

The samurai raised the tip of his sword to the sorcerer's chin. His gaze was cold and dark. "You will do no such thing and stay right where you are."

"Kame, please…" Sheldon begged. "It doesn't have to end like this. You can still stop this. You can still find happiness."

_What in the world do these two have between them?_ Jenny thought, her face becoming scrunched and angular with confusion.

Controlling the last amount of darkness left in her body, Kame's hand twitched. The tendril did as well. Her eyes faded back to brown, back to awareness. The vestige of darkness shriveled away in a white light, as did the mist, freeing Jenny.

"No…" A single tear streaked down her face. "My soul is too far gone."

Faster than Jack could react, Akuji shed his human form, and shifted into a blade of darkness, piercing Kame's back.

Sheldon's breath rushed out of his lungs.

The woman smiled. "No. Don't be sad. For now I'm truly free."

The demonic blade drew itself out of her back. She crumpled to the ground. It left no mark and no blood, and turned to face Jack.

_"Now it's your turn," _the sorcerer hissed, disappearing in a vapory black smoke.

Yet this time, the samurai was prepared.

_Shinnng!_

The black blade clattered to the ground. With a final white glow, it disappeared.

The samurai sheathed his sword and sighed. He walked over to the robot, the deceased Kame, and the younger man, who had started to weep.

"Are you all right?" Sheldon asked.

Jenny hugged him. "I should be asking that, not you."

Hugging her back, Sheldon suppressed a shudder. "No, _I _sh-should."

"No, Sheldon. _I_ should."

Jack cleared his throat quietly. "I… do not mean to interrupt, but — "

_Pssshooo!_

A pipe burst on the upper level, close to the stairs.

"I think we should leave," the samurai said.

Jenny nodded. She looked to Sheldon. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah. It's… It's more my shoulders. From b-being tied up." He sniffled again, wiping his eyes. "God, Jenny. I thought I'd never see you again."

"It's good to see you, too." She helped him up with a hand at his back. "And I'm glad this is over."

-.-.-

The snowflakes covered the meadow the samurai and the robot girl had trained on. Wind battered the three as they traveled. Winter had finally arrived.

Seeing Sheldon shivering, Jenny shifted her arm into a heat lamp.

He smiled, raising his hands up to the faint glow. "Thanks." Remembering the samurai beside him, he brought out one hand to him. "Sorry. Don't think we've been introduced. Name's Sheldon."

The samurai curtly took it. "Jack."

Clouds of snow swirled up ahead in the distance.

"Are you… and Jenny…" Sheldon began, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Jenny snapped. "We're not. But something tells me you and Kame were."

"Jenny, you're taking this the wrong way."

Jenny's cheeks burned. Her body metal heat went up, melting the snow that fell on her. "I didn't think you were into older women. But then again, you're over a hundred years old, are you? Being with those space pirates and all…"

"When she was younger," Sheldon cut in, "she fell in love with Akuji. And when she found out that he was a dark sorcerer, she tried to change his ways. She tried to show him that he didn't have to be dark because that's what others called him. But for doing that, Akuji became angry, and enslaved her, so she could never leave his side. Of course, she wanted to be by his side. She loved him, but she had given up trying to change him."

Jenny snorted. "So you did love her. You gave up on me."

"No. I _didn't!_" Sheldon snapped back. Quieting, he continued. "Nothing _happened_. We weren't together. She just helped me out. A lot. She… gave me the faith to keep waiting, hoping that we'd find each other, but…" He stared at his feet. "She didn't have a lot of faith in herself. She had faith in me, though…unlike _one_ robot I know."

Glancing at the samurai, looking for sympathy, Jenny found an understanding gaze from him instead of an admonishing one. Remembering the summer night from before, in Jack's arms, when all seemed lost to her, Jenny frowned, looking back out into the distance.

"You're right," she said. "I'm sorry, Sheldon. I did take it the wrong way. Jack is, to me, what Kame is — was to you."

"It's okay," Sheldon mumbled. "What I said was mean."

"There's quite a bit to catch up on."

"Yeah."

"How are…" Jenny hesitated, recalculating her syntax. "Have you heard from Brad and Tuck? Or Mom?"

Sheldon stopped. He ripped his gaze off his feet. His lips parted as he stared at Jenny.

"You… You mean, you don't know?" he said.

The samurai and robot girl stopped to stare back at him.

"Sheldon, what happened?" Jenny whispered.

"Could the pod have…" He placed a hand at her cheek. "How's your memory been? Is it spotty in some places?"

At the touch, the lights in Jenny's cheeks buzzed. "Yes, but…"

"That must be it," he mumbled. "That's what we'll do."

"Sheldon — "

"We should get you fixed up first."

She snatched his hand away. "Dammit, Sheldon, answer me! What happened to them? Tell me!"

Sheldon clenched his teeth. With a deep breath, he said two words.

"They're gone."


End file.
